Clinical messaging app receives NHS approval

Clinical messaging app Pando Health has been officially approved by NHS Digital & listed in the NHS Apps Library. This approval follows the number of clinicians using the app rising to 45,000.

Since launching in 2018, Pando Health (formerly Forward Health) has been compliant with NHS England and NHS Digital guidelines. This additional step sees the app join the NHS Library and become the only platform in the ‘Online Community’ category specifically designed for healthcare workers.

The app is free for NHS staff and allows them to communicate within and between wards, as well as connecting primary, community and secondary care teams. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the app has seen a 700% increase in engagement, as NHS teams moved rapidly to ensure they could communicate quickly and effectively during the crisis. 

Pando reduces reliance on pagers and landlines and the need to use non-compliant messaging platforms. Users can share information, seek advice from specialists, and share imagery and tests results, all via the app. Also, clinicians don’t need to know the phone number of the person they are trying to contact in order to reach them via Pando.

The app was founded by a team of NHS doctors who wanted a better way of communicating with their colleagues whilst on shift.

The app is being used across the NHS to support COVID-19 communications. This includes use by Barts Health, London’s Air Ambulance and the London Ambulance Service to coordinate the use of their new Physician Response Unit (PRU). This unit enables more 999 patients to be treated at home. Their teams are using Pando to manage referrals, track tasks, and to allow the duty team to receive and communicate clinical information about patients wherever they are, enabling timely care and efficient decision-making. 

Dr Barney Gilbert, co-founder and co-CEO at Pando Health, said: “As a company, Pando has placed data protection and security at the heart of everything we do since day one. We are proud to deliver a tool that is not only safe to use but equips our 45,000 users with features that have been specifically designed for health and social care settings. We are beyond delighted to join the NHS App Library. Pando is now the most widely used clinical messaging system in the NHS and we feel privileged to be able to support our healthcare workers at this critical time for our health service.”